Highland Fling 2012 - Seven in a Row

Ian Rae smiles his way to the finish

With near perfect, cool but sunny weather conditions, Ian Rae became the only person to have completed all 7 Highland Fling 53 mile ultra races, despite suffering a severe ankle sprain on the loch side which slowed him considerably. Ian completed the course in a not un-naturally slower than usual time of 12 hours 28 minutes and 20 seconds in 262nd position. Well done indeed to Ian for toughing it out (note that the only other person who was on for 7 in a row was a female runner who had to withdraw on the loch side after sustaining a broken shoulder. There is no truth in the rumour that Ian sustained his sprained ankle whilst landing awkwardly from a mistimed karate kick whilst passing said runner!!). Ian's next race is the full West Highland Way Race in 8 weeks time.

Regular TTC participant and occasional pack runner on Harriers' training nights, Graeme Allan of ATHelite Tri Club also completed the individual race, his first ever ultra, in a time of 13:08:15 in 319th position. How tough this ultra event is, was put into perspective by the fact that this is a similar time to Graeme's two Ironman distance triathlons which he has completed so far. Well done Graeme and despite what you said at the finish, I am sure you will do another one!

Meanwhile Calderglen Harriers were running under cover in the relay event (4 legs of 12 to 15 miles). Entered as Speed of Lite, The Mighty Midges and The Oyster Catchers, our two men's and one ladies' team respectively were out to avoid the ribbing we took at last year's prize giving when we entered as Calderglen A, B and C, which apparently was not the done thing. We also had Harrier Benny Rooney out with his mixed team under the name of Rooney's Rogues.

Frances receives the 2nd place prize

Genevieve Freeman was on first leg duty for The Oyster Catchers and, despite a relative lack of running miles in her training so far this year, proved that she has plenty of endurance from recent big miles on the bike to set us off brilliantly in 3rd place in a time of 1:43:11 for the 13 miles from Milngavie to Drymen. Joanne McEvoy took the longest leg with biggest climb from Drymen over Conic Hill to Rowardennan (about 15 miles of "undulating" terrain) and set second fastest time of the day to finish in 2:26:46, maintaining third place but closing the gap on second. Julie Beveridge has not really run or raced over this sort of terrain before and so it was a little bit of a voyage into the unknown on the Rowardennan to Beinn Glas Farm 13 mile leg up the side of Loch Lomond, a treacherous stage underfoot. Julie was delighted with her run, recording 2:23:12, 5th fastest time on the leg and keeping us in 3rd place. Finally, Frances Maxwell was released on the last leg from Beinn Glas Farm to Tyndrum, a 12 mile stage with a 1000 foot ascent over the first 6 miles. Frances had a stunning run, setting fastest time of the day of  1:47:07, some 4 minutes faster than last year and bringing the team through to finish in second place behind leaders from the start, the Fifie Wifies. What a great performance from Calderglen's ladies.

3rd place prize giving

The men's veteran A (sorry Speed of Lite) team was also fielding slightly different personnel this year, with the introduction of Davy Watt on a trial basis to see if he was any good! Leg 1 went to in-form Stuart Waugh who unfortunately had a recurrence of a knee ligament problem after only 2 of the 13 miles which slowed him considerably. Being a relay, there was no way that Stuart was going to stop and there can be no complaints over his performance, finishing in a great 1:37:42 in 13th position. Davy Watt comes from a hill running background a long, long time ago and so we knew he would be good on the long second leg up and over Conic Hill and then the not insignificant other undulations between Balmaha and the changeover at Rowardennan. Davy covered the 15 miles in an incredible 2:01:18, 3rd fastest time of the day and bringing us up to 6th place. I think he passed the trial! Eddie Reid has not had his usual continuity in training recently but still hoped to get around the 2 hour mark for the lochside leg. This he did, finishing very strongly in 2:03:21 and 6th fastest time of the day, bringing us up to 5th place (at this stage, we really had no idea what position we were in but as we had seen two definite relay teams going through, we assumed 3rd place. How wrong we were!). So it was then up to the boy of the team, me, to try to maintain 3rd place or, as seemed unlikely given the gaps, to improve upon that. With experience of this leg from last year, I tried a more cautious approach from the beginning for the 6 mile, 1000 foot ascent. Apart from a crumpled up sock cutting off circulation in my foot requiring a quick pit stop at the top of the climb to fix, I had no real problems and was sailing along quite nicely, passing many but not seeing anyone that looked like they were running at relay pace. I crossed the line in 1:31:05, around 50 seconds slower than last year (mainly due to the pit stop to sort my sock out and stopping to cross the main road) which turned out to be 2nd fastest time of the day and (thankfully) actually had brought us up to 3rd place, having passed two teams somewhere. The winners were Stonehaven Top Dogs (who had lead by a long way from the start and we had not seen at all), followed by Glenpark Haggis Bashers (who we had thought were the leaders). A great result for the team, particularly as we span the age range 47 to 61.

David Wardrope powers to the line

Russell Couper has probably never been described as a midge but he had the honour of leading off The Mighty Midges. Despite various ailments, Russell surprised himself by running 4 minutes faster than last year to finish in 2:00:47, a great effort on that terrain and a sign that Russell is coming back to form (although he is now away on holiday for two weeks, hopefully not undoing the good!). Andy Henderson had an eventful second leg, falling several times and sustaining a few cuts and bruises. However, he kept it going and made up loads of places to finish in 2:26:35. Jim Holmes had volunteered for the loch side, a leg he had never done before although he had walked it years ago. Jim had an enjoyable and fast run, finishing in 2:09:33 made all the more fun by the fact that Jim was also making up many places. Finally, the leg that should have been GPL but due to a claimed SGS or perhaps MBC, the GPL was a LMW and super-sub David Wardrope stepped in for the glory leg to the finish (click here for a key to the abbreviations). David was unfamiliar with the route and that does make a difference on this leg as there is some good running in the second half if you have saved something. David finished looking tired in 2:09:14 and knows he would pace it differently if doing it again.

Another very enjoyable event in the wonderful countryside we have to run in here. Unfortunately, the introduction of a new sponsor was perhaps not that impressive as the event T-shirts had not turned up and the prize giving by the sponsor was one hour late at 20:30 (as they spent at least a half hour arranging their banners and so on to make the stage ready), by which time most of the prize recipients had left (hours ago). It would have been a better prize giving atmosphere if the prizes had been awarded as and when the finishers came in when there were still hundreds of spectators and competitors around. As it was we were not very happy to be hanging around that long but at least should get some credit for doing so (as we know ourselves from organising races it is not very nice doing the prize giving when prize winners are not there). Just as well our miscounting of the team positions had not been critical and we had still won something too!! (Benny's team won the mixed team prize too but we were so hacked off with the lateness of the prize giving that we forgot to stay to pick up that prize. No doubt it will be in the post along with the T-shirts).

Well done to all the Harriers and supporters for making this another event to remember and look forward to next year (although I doubt we will stay for the prize giving!).

All the results including stage rankings are at this link.
Alan